The Arewa Consultative Forum
(ACF) has said that former president Olusegun Obasanjo might change his mind by
withdrawing his endorsement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), before the 2019 elections.
Anthony Sani, Secretary-General
of the forum, described Obasanjo as an inconsistent leader who “does not
accommodate conviction and vision expected of a statesman of his status”.
Sani cited some instances of
Obasanjo’s inconsistencies where he tore his PDP membership card and said he
was done with partisan politics.
He observed that Obasanjo later
formed a non-partisan movement, Coalition for Nigerian Movement (CNM), which
coalesced into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a political party.
Sani told Independent on Sunday:
“Former President Obasanjo is a factor in national politics having governed the
country under both military and democracy.
“His commitment to one united Nigeria
cannot be taken away from him, but whether such attributes can translate into
electoral value is in doubt. More so that Obasanjo has been a product beyond
himself.
“When the late Murtala Muhammed
was assassinated in 1976, the military hierarchy at that time asked Obasanjo to
take over as Head of State.
“It was not his efforts that got
him the position. Also in 1999, the retired Generals and Northern leaders went
and brought him out and made him the president. These are not his personal
efforts. So, Obasanjo is a product of forces beyond him.”
He said despite the former
president’s endorsement of Atiku as his choice for the 2019 presidential
election, Nigerians and Atiku were not rejoicing yet because Obasanjo was
unpredictable and might change his mind before the elections.
“As to whether Nigerians will
pander to the former president’s endorsement of the presidential candidate of
the main opposition party is also in doubt, precisely because of his
inconsistency that does not accommodate conviction and vision expected of a
statesman of his status.
“Consider the former president
tore his party card of PDP and wrote off both APC and PDP as unserviceable. He
then formed a nonpartisan Coalition Movement which he later transmuted to a
political party called ADC against his earlier ‘new year resolution’ not to be
partisan.
“Former President Obasanjo said
God would not forgive him if he endorsed his former VP for president, only for
him to now leave his ADC and endorse Atiku.
“I believe not only Nigerians but
even Atiku himself cannot bask in the glow of the endorsement by Obasanjo out
of the fear that the manifest inconsistency can make him change his mind before
the elections,” Sani added.
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